The contradiction at the heart of #Gaza’s hunger crisis is stark. On paper, aid deliveries are rising; in practice, #Israeli bombardments, displacement, and collapsing infrastructure mean families still go hungry. It means #famine still stalks #Palestinians www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

Just walking around the hellscape that is my Chicago neighborhood this morning

Foreign media outlets rely on Gazans to risk their lives daily for their reporting, yet absolutely nothing is done to protect them from being killed in Israeli strikes. Any journalist worth the title should be ashamed. #journalismisnotacrime #gaza #israel www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

#Israel has the power to avert #famine in #Gaza. Will it use it? @csmonitor.bsky.social www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

Iran state TV reports that the Iranian parliament has voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint in the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the worlds oil and thousands of cargo ships pass through. #Iran #Israel #US #Trump english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-...

President #Trump is reportedly leaning towards entering the #US into #Israel's war on #Iran. Can #Arab states, led by the Gulf, change his mind? @csmonitor.bsky.social #SaudiArabia #UAE #Gulf #Jordan www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

"You have to run to the center or you'll lose" (Loses election) "You have to run to the center or you'll lose" (Country is overthrown) "You have to run to the center or you'll lose" (Is drifting through space alongside Earth's remains) "You have to run to the center or you'll lose"

don't forget #Gaza that is all.

The next 24 hours will determine whether President #Trump’s “military strikes as negotiation leverage” with #Iran will become a strategic success or a historic failure that haunts the Mideast, and America, for year to come.

After a period of emergency, calm has returned to #Amman. The #Jordan army reports it has knocked down #Iranian drones and missiles over the kingdom (heading to #Israel). But make no mistake: #Arab countries are in the direct firing line of #Israel-#Iran war and have the most to lose.

Lawrence of Arabia bombed the Hejaz Railway. #Syria is working to get it running again. My latest in @csmonitor.bsky.social www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

Donald Trump was elected partly on the promise of a factory renaissance. Made-in-America may come back, but not necessarily in the places that led U.S. manufacturing 80 years ago. #jobs #factories #RustBelt www.csmonitor.com/Business/202...

A new regional alignment is rising in the Middle East signaling a shift in power away from Iran’s weakened “Axis of Resistance.” Moderate Sunnis seeking stability and prosperity now have friendly governments in Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. #MiddleEast #Iran #cooperation

My latest on #Substack: In the Ashes of the Axis of Resistance, a Mideast Axis of Cooperation Rises open.substack.com/pub/taylorlu...

Amid the ashes of #Iran 's Axis of Resistance, a new Mideast alignment rises: the Axis of Cooperation www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle... #Syria #SaudiArabia #UAE #Jordan #Iraq #Lebanon

For me as a reader, some relief and hope in this desire for peace, 5,000 miles away. I’ll take it. Thank you, @taylorluck.bsky.social www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

Polling from Pew & Gallup shows that most Americans now hold unfavourable views of Israel & Hamas. But our leaders remain woefully out of step with mainstream opinion. The time is ripe for leaders who Sister Souljah pro-Oct. 7 nuts but chart a dramatically different course on Israel.

Syrian business owners who for years worked around sanctions to turn a profit by hook or by crook are now eyeing a meteoric rise. "We are in a transition from North Korea to South Korea,” says Mohamed Al Hafi, of Al Hafi Cousins Trading Company. #Syria #Trump www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

I am open minded, but even I didn't have Trump calling Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa an "attractive guy" on my Middle East Bingo card. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

This @axios.com report by @barakravid.bsky.social suggests the United States is fully on board with the Israeli aid-control plan, whereas every single humanitarian group or UN agency working in Gaza have declared that they won’t touch it. www.axios.com/2025/05/04/u...

Pope Francis's final wish was to transform his popemobile into a mobile health clinic for the children of Gaza. Caritas Jerusalem is now making it happen. 🕊️ Well after his death, he continues to bless us with his beautiful heart. Rest in peace, gentle soul. www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

"Is it risky to have my name on this article" is a question I've asked myself living in authoritarian countries. Now it's a question college students in America are asking. Trump is carrying out a shameful and un-American assault on one of our core values www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Tom Friedman showing once again why he's still the GOAT: he has updated his "columns based on taxi rides" shtick for the era of self-driving taxis

Since Trump returned to office, American air strikes in the Middle East and Africa have surged: at least 19 in Somalia (compared to 11 in all of 2024), 37 consecutive days of bombing in Yemen, and a hard-to-count number in Syria and Iraq. www.economist.com/internationa...

In the wake of militant cell activity, #Jordan bans the Muslim Brotherhood as an "illegal movement", seizes its property and bans any political or media entity from working with the dissolved Brotherhood or spreading its ideology. Jordan's largest opposition movement is banned. Expect arrests.

The Islamic Action Front- the political arm of #Jordan 's Muslim Brotherhood- announced it has frozen the party membership of three individuals wanted in the case of a sleeper cell producing missiles in Jordan. www.khaberni.com/news/705511-...

#Jordan has busted an alleged Muslim Brotherhood/ #Hamas linked cell manufacturing missiles in the kingdom. Should Jordan ban the Brotherhood in response, it will be the biggest political development in the kingdom in nearly 30 years. www.almamlakatv.com/news/166524-...

If you study dictatorships’ economies, you’ll see that selective enforcement of the tax code (to enrich friends, incentivise donors & punish critics) is a key tool. It’s foundational to the political economy of authoritarianism. Trump wants this. If he gets it, US democracy dies. 🧵⬇️

I am happy to share my latest analysis on #Substack The Anti- #Hamas Protests in #Gaza: What it means, how to look beyond the spin, and the new narratives emerging from Gazans retaking the public sphere. open.substack.com/pub/taylorlu...

What are Israel's new goals in Gaza? To "empty permanently" the area around Rafah, around 20% of Gaza's territory; to herd Gaza's 2m people to the coast and create "kill zones" elsewhere; and to control aid distribution, rather than coordinating it with humanitarian groups.

Facing internal and external foes, Syria rebuilds and rethinks its army

Elder millennials watching traders freak out about a global economic collapse that will wreck tens of millions of lives and livelihoods, possibly irreparably

Hi. Books are incredibly important. Please let them be.

At what point as a journalist are you just reporting the same stories of death, despair and hopelessness in #Gaza? At what point do you become part of the cycle, of the cynicism, of the pointlessness? At what point do you become part of the dehumanization?

France, the country of true justice

New Israeli corridor in southern Gaza; Netanyahu, Trump to meet again

In case there was any doubt, the Shin Bet director's letter to Israel's high court makes clear: "The war's continuation, on multiple fronts, was for Netanyahu's personal benefit... a diversion from his trial, used as an excuse for the interminable delays." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Hundreds of Palestinians turned out in protests in four towns/camps across #Gaza today demanding an end to the war and for #Hamas to "leave." Different groups and governments have interests to underplay or overplay the demos but one thing is clear: Gazans want an end to the war and even Hamas' rule

Syria reweaves its identity

On the back of an alleged Jordanian proposal for 3,000 #Hamas military & civilian leaders to exit #Gaza in return for an enduring ceasefire & reconstruction, scattered protests against Hamas rule are erupting in the Strip. Gazans' message: you can be both against #Israel 's offensive & Hamas

As journalists, it is our job to continue to shine light on #Israel' s offensive on #Gaza, the loss of life, the humanitarian suffering. But we also need to report on #Hamas as a party to the war, with agency and actions affecting the course of the bloody conflict. We need to do both better.

I am truly terrified for Hamdan. If you don’t know who Hamdan Ballal is, he is the director of No Other Land and he and Yuval both won the Oscar for Best Documentary this year

My latest on #Substack The Jihadist Who Would Be #Syria's President: Ahmed al-Sharaa's (and interim govt's) 100-day report card open.substack.com/pub/taylorlu...

The Istanbul mayor’s arrest, and rise of a ‘new model’ of Turkish autocracy

#Syria 's new rulers are spread thin as they face huge security, diplomatic, economic challenges. Here is how civil society is stepping in and filling the gaps- making the country run. www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

This painful message comes from a member of Standing Together, the Israeli-Palestinian organisation that's worked tirelessly to get aid into Gaza, even putting their bodies btw aid trucks & violent settlers who attack them. His empathy lights the path toward ending this madness. 🧵

My latest at @wilsoncentermep.bsky.social @wilsoncenter.org #Syria hangs by a thread while #US sanctions block reconstruction. Rebuilding and security in the post-war Syria is increasingly linked. www.wilsoncenter.org/article/syri...

I recently spoke to Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Andrew West on the implications of the recent spate of violence in northwest #Syria and potential paths to progress. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

is this thing on?

An insurgency by gunmen loyal to the ousted government of Bashar al-Assad and a wave of sectarian revenge killings are threatening to transform #Syria from a cautious success story to the Middle East’s next crisis--jeopardizing its reconstruction and recovery. www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...